AbstractBackground: Diabetes mellitus has emerged as a state of low-grade chronic inflammation. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has evolved as a regulator of glucose homeostasis apart from it is immunoregulatory action. Body mass index (BMI) is always being used as a qualitative and quantitative measurement of normal healthy life. Any association between these two parameters will give us a direction toward living a healthy disease free lifestyle.

Aims and Objectives: Present study was aimed to (i) estimate serum IL-6 level and BMI among diabetic patients, (ii) compare them with healthy subjects, and (iii) study correlation between them.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done with 60 diabetes mellitus patients and 60 controls. Further, each group was divided into three BMI categories: Normal (BMI <25), overweight (BMI 25–29), and obese (BMI >29) categories. Weight and height were measured; BMI was calculated as kg/m2. All blood samples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method using human IL-6 ELISA kit. Data analysis was done using SPSS, version 21. Mean ± standard deviation values of variables were analyzed using student’s independent t-test. Correlation was found out using Pearson’s correlation test.

Results: In all three BMI categories, serum IL-6 were found to be higher among cases than controls, but the difference was significant among normal BMI category (P = 0.00). On the other hand, correlations between serum IL-6 and BMI were found to be positive among all three BMI categories but were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: Positive correlation was found between serum IL-6 and BMI. However, the results were not statistically significant. Increased BMI may be responsible for inducing hyperglycemic state, but IL-6 may not be a reliable tool to study the effect of BMI among diabetic patients.